Flannery want fossil fuel imports ban

April 19, 2007 — 9.04am

Australia must ban fossil fuel imports by 2020 if it hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions, scientist and Australian of the Year Tim Flannery says.

Commenting ahead of a speech at an ethanol industry conference in Melbourne, Dr Flannery said the Stern report into the world's environmental state identified biofuel use as one of the cheapest methods to halt global warming.

But while other nations forged ahead to cut their use of fossil fuels, Australia was well behind, he said.

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"Places like Sweden have set targets now to eliminate petrol imports by 2020, so they are weaning themselves off fossil fuels," he said.

"Brazil is obviously doing a great job and there is lots happening in the US and Canada, but Australia is sitting on its hands a bit.

"We need targets in this country. A good aspirational goal would be to stop importing fossil fuels by 2020.

"If Sweden can do it, I think there is a very good chance that we can do it, and then work out what the particular strategy is to do that."

The target could be achieved with increased fuel efficiency and the use of biofuels such as ethanol, he said.

"Australia lags behind in a lot of things. We're a little bit isolated.

"I think that also there are vested interests in Australia. The fossil fuel lobby is quite strong, they are a strong lobby group that wants to protect their patch and we see it with coal and petroleum."

The government also needed to set a target for how much Australia must reduce carbon dioxide emissions, he said.

"What needs to be done is for the government to set some target," he said.

"If anyone in business went into their board meeting and said 'Don't ask me about what we are going to produce next year or what the target will be', they would be out of a job very, very quickly."